Today was FOX day at the Television Critics Association winter tour in Los Angeles, where American Idol snagged a panel. New mentor, Scott Borchetta, host Ryan Seacrest, judges Harry Connick Jr. Keith Urban, Jennifer Lopez and Executive producers Trish Kinane and Per Blankens were all in attendance.
Here are some highlights.
- About the once per week performance shows. “We’re actually rather pleased that they’re down to one per week,” Trish Kinane said. The shows will be “jam packed.” Eliminations will NOT take place at the top of the show. But they have “some cool ideas about how to incorporate that drama during the course of the show.”
- Kinane doesn’t believe Borchetta’s presence will translate to country stars being favored. She said there will be new steps in the process to give contestants to tease out unique artists. “We wanted to look for the different types of artists,” she said.
- Two of these steps include a post-Hollywood phase where the judges met with the contestants and got to know them, almost like a job interview. There was also The Showcase performance at The House of Blues. Harry called it “an amazing experience.” He said, “We saw them do what all of us really have to do. You have to go to smaller venues, get up and play,” he said. “It was like a mini-festival in there.”
- Borchetta watched the tapes of the conversations with the judges, which has helped him know where the singers stand in their artist development.
- Harry Connick Jr. says they see more talent in big cities, but small markets deliver talent as well. Interestingly, he thinks there were the fewest strong auditioners in his hometown, New Orleans. “People were coming in from New Orleans and surrounding areas, but there was nothing indigenous about the music,” Harry said, noting that nowadays people can be influenced “by anyone, anything at anytime.”
- Ryan Seacrest believes that in New York and LA, the stakes don’t seem as high because artists have other options to make it in the biz.
- Keith Urban had mixed feelings about knowing a couple of the contestants before Idol (he played on stage with Riley Bria). He wants to be objective, but it’s hard.
- Happy contestants and their families never get old for Ryan.
- “Studios are still the end game. It’s how you develop the talent,” Borchetta says of turning reality show alums into stars.
- Keith noted that it’s not the same industry that Carrie Underwood entered in 2005. Even the definition of superstar is different today.
- Harry disagrees with people who believe reality show grads don’t pay their dues. He said that if you’ve gone through the Idol 6 month experience. “…that is about the best experience that you can get for any musicians. I give it up for anybody who will get up on that ‘American Idol’ stage and take that ride,” Harry said. “Certain people are ready must faster than others for this journey and this show will filter that,” Keith said.
- There are fewer “obviously bad” auditions this year because “people know when it’s being manipulated,” said Kinane. Idol musical director, Michael Orland, was added as an option for hopefuls to be accompanied. “It’s what happens in real auditions,” she said.
- “[The contestants] are going to go out into the world and try to have a career. We wanted to put someone in the mix really early on that has an investment in what happens to these kids in the end,” said Kanane about bringing Borchetta aboard.
- Borchetta said artists are always “in development.” He said, “When you are in this, you’re in this for life.” and “Our best artists are most successful when they excite themselves.”
- “My job will be helping the artists understand who they are, what their vision is and what the arena is for them to really go after it and be an individual,” Borchetta said. “That’s one of the reasons I’m so excited to be involved with them from the beginning, to really work with them.”
- “Most of the world thinks Adam won,” Borchetta said of Adam Lambert, the season 8 runner up. He feels his job is to make sure that after the winner is crowned, they’ve been given the opportunity to succeed.
- Kinane on the way the show teased the Top 24 (with a video of the contestants in shadow). She said there’s been a lot of speculation online, some has been right, and some has been wrong. It’s become another game.
- “We really think we’ve got great talent this year, so we really wanted to say that up front,” Kinane said. “We wanted to say, ‘Look, guys, this is a good season. It’s worth investing your time.’”
- Regarding ratings falling last year: “I think that the show is successful because of the sum of all parts,” Ryan said. We had some great contestants, but I think they could have had more instances to connect with the audience and we could’ve captured that better this year. This year, we made a real effort to find those contestants who can and will do that.”
